1.
Last Thursday evening, with considerable difficulty, I stood here to
preach the gospel of Jesus Christ, and I handled one of the simplest
imaginable texts, full of nothing but the very plainest elements of
the gospel. Within a very few minutes I had a harvest for the sermon.
The congregation was small, for you know how bad a night it was,
and how little you expected that your pastor would be able to preach,
but three souls came forward uninvited to acknowledge that they had
found peace with God. How many more there were I do not know, but
these three sought out the brethren, and bore a good and hearty
confession to the blessed fact that for the first time in their lives
they had understood the plan of salvation. Now, it seemed to me that
if a plain gospel theme was so promptly profitable, I had better keep
to similar subjects. If a farmer finds that a certain seed has paid
him so well that he never had a better crop before, then he will keep
to that seed, and sow more of it. Those processes of farming which
have been successful should be persevered in, and even used on a
larger scale. So this morning I shall just preach the A B C of the
gospel, the first rudiments of the art of salvation, and I thank God
this will be no new thing for me. May God the Holy Spirit, in answer
to your prayers, grant us a reward this morning after the same
proportion as last Thursday, and, if so, our heart will be
exceedingly glad.

2.
From a very great number I have selected the four texts which I have
read just to illustrate the truth that the mission of our Lord
related to sinners. What did Christ come into the world for? For whom
did he come? These are questions of the greatest importance, and they
are clearly answered in Scripture. When the children of Israel first
found manna outside the camp they said to each other, “Manna?” or,
“What is it?” for they did not know what it was. There it lay, a
small round thing, as small as the hoar-frost upon the ground. No
doubt they looked at it and rubbed it in their hands, and smelled it,
but how glad they were when Moses said, “This is the bread which
the Lord has given you to eat.” They were not long before they put
the good news to the test, for each man gathered his omer full and
took it home, and prepared it according to his liking. Now,
concerning the gospel, there are many who might call out “Manna?” for
they do not know what it is. Very frequently, too they make a mistake
concerning its bearings and its purpose, dreaming that it is a kind
of improved law, or an easier system of salvation by works; and hence
they err also in their idea of the people for whom it is intended.
They imagine that surely the blessings of salvation must be meant for
deserving people, and Christ must be the Redeemer of the meritorious.
On the principle of “good for the good” they infer that grace is for
the excellent and Christ for the virtuous. Hence it is a most
useful thing for us continually to be reminding men what the gospel
is, and for whom it is sent into the world; for, though the great
majority of you know very well, and do not need to be told, yet there
are multitudes around us who persist in grave mistakes, and need to
be instructed over and over again in the very simplest of the
doctrines of grace. There is less need for laborious explanations
of profound mysteries than for simple explanations of plain truths.
Many men need only a simple latchkey to lift the latch and open the
door of faith, and such a key I hope God’s infinite mercy may put
into their hands this morning. Our business is to show that the
gospel is intended for sinners, that it has an eye for guilty people;
that it is not sent into the world as a reward for the good and for
the excellent, or for those who think they have any measure of
fitness or preparation for the divine favour; but that it is intended
for law breakers, for the undeserving, for the ungodly, for those who
have gone astray like lost sheep, or left their father’s house like
the prodigal. Christ died to save sinners, and he justifies the
ungodly. The truth is plain enough in the Word, but since the human
heart kicks against it we will all the more earnestly insist upon it.

3.I. First, EVEN A SUPERFICIAL GLANCE AT OUR LORD’S MISSION
SUFFICES TO SHOW THAT HIS WORK WAS FOR THE SINFUL.

4.
Dear brethren, the descent of the Son of God into this world as a
Saviour implied that men needed to be delivered from a great evil
by a divine hand. The coming of a Saviour who should by his death
provide pardon for human sin supposed men to be greatly guilty, and
to be incapable of procuring pardon by any doings of their own. You
would never have seen a Saviour if there had not been a fall. Eden’s
withering was a necessary preface to Gethsemane’s groaning. You would
never have heard about a cross and a bleeding Saviour on it if you
had not first heard of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil,
and of a disobedient hand which picked the forbidden fruit. If the
mission of our Lord did not refer to the guilty it was an unnecessary
errand altogether, as far as we can see. What justifies the
incarnation except man’s ruin? What explains our Lord’s suffering
life except man’s guilt? Above all, what explains his death and the
cloud under which he died except human sin? “All we like sheep have
gone astray, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us
all” — that is the answer to an otherwise unanswerable riddle.

5.
If we give a glance at the covenant under which our Lord came we
soon perceive that its bearing is towards guilty men. The blessing of
the covenant of works has to do with men who are innocent, and to
them it promises great blessings. If there had been salvation by
works it would have been by the law, for the law is upright and just
and good; but the new covenant evidently deals with sinners, for it
does not speak of the reward of merit, but it freely promises, “I
will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and I will remember their
sins and their iniquities no more.” If there had been no sins and
iniquities, and no unrighteousness, then there would have been no
need of the covenant of grace, of which Christ is the messenger and
the ambassador. The slightest glimpse at our Lord’s official
character as the Adam of a new covenant should suffice to convince us
that his errand is to guilty men. Moses comes to show how the holy
should behave, but Jesus comes to reveal how the unholy may be
cleansed.

6.
Whenever we hear the mission of Christ spoken of it is described as
one of mercy and of grace. In the redemption which is in Christ
Jesus it is always the mercy of God that is extolled — according to his
mercy he saved us. He for Christ’s sake, according to his abundant
mercy, forgives us our trespasses. “The law was given by Moses, but
grace and truth by Jesus Christ.” “The grace of God, and the gift of
grace, which is by one man Jesus Christ, has abounded to many.” The
apostle Paul, who most fully expounds the gospel, makes grace to be
the one word upon which he rings the changes: “where sin abounded
grace did much more abound.” “By grace you are saved, through faith,
and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God.” “Grace reigns
through righteousness to eternal life, by Jesus Christ our Lord.”
But, brethren, mercy implies sinfulness: there can be no mercy
extended to the just, for justice itself secures every good thing for
them. Grace, too, can only be for offenders. What grace is needed by
those who have kept the law, and deserved well at Jehovah’s hands? To
them eternal life would be a matter of debt, a fairly earned reward;
but when you talk about grace you at once exclude merit and introduce
another principle. Mercy can only be exercised where there is sin,
and grace cannot be revealed except to the undeserving. This is plain
enough, and yet the whole tenor of some men’s religion is based on
another theory.

7.
The fact is, when we begin to study the gospel of the grace of God we
see that it turns its face always towards sin, even as a
physician looks towards disease, or as charity looks towards
distress. The gospel issues its invitations; but what are the
invitations? Are they not addressed to those who are burdened with a
load of sin, and labouring to escape from its consequences? It
invites every creature because every creature has its needs, but it
especially says “Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous
man his thoughts.” It invites the man who has no money, or, in other
words, no merit. It calls to those who are needy, and thirsty, and
poor, and naked, and all these are only used as examples of
conditions produced by sin. The very gifts of the gospel imply
sin; life is for the dead, sight is for the blind, liberty is for the
captives, cleansing is for the filthy, absolution is for the
sinful. No gospel blessing is proposed as a reward, and no
invitation is issued to those who claim the blessings of grace as a
matter of right; men are invited to come and receive them freely
according to the grace of God. And what are the commands of the
gospel? Repent. But who repents except a sinner? Believe. But
believing is not according to the law; the law speaks only of doing.
Believing has to do with sinners, and with the method of salvation by
grace.

8.The gospel representations of itself usually look towards the
sinner. The great king who makes a feast does not find a guest to
sit at the table among those who were naturally expected to come, but
from the highways and hedges men are compelled to come in. If the
gospel describes itself as a feast it is a great feast for the blind,
the halt, and the lame; if it describes itself as a fountain it is a
fountain opened for sin and for uncleanness. Everywhere, in all that
it does and says and provides for men, the gospel proves itself to be
the sinner’s friend. The motto of its Founder and Lord still is “this
man receives sinners.” The gospel is a hospital for the sick, no
one except the guilty will ever accept its benefits; it is medicine
for the diseased, the healthy and the self-righteous will never
relish its saving draughts. Those who imagine that they have some
excellence before God will never care to be saved by sovereign
grace. The gospel, I say, looks towards the sinner. That way and
that way only does it bestow its blessings.

9.
And brethren, you know that the gospel has always found its
greatest trophies among the most sinful: it enlists its best
soldiers not only from among the guilty but from among the most
guilty. “Simon,” our Lord said, “I have something to say to you — A
certain man had two debtors, the one owed him five hundred pence, and
the other fifty, and when they had nothing to pay he frankly forgave
them both. Tell me therefore, which of them will love him most?” The
gospel goes upon the principle that he who has had much forgiven the
same loves much, and so its gracious Lord delights to seek out the
most guilty and to reveal himself to them with abundant and
overflowing love, saying “I have blotted out your sins like a cloud,
and your transgressions like a thick cloud.” Among great
transgressors it finds its warmest lovers, when once it has saved
them, from these it receives the heartiest welcome and in them it
obtains the most enthusiastic adherents. Great sinners when saved
crown free grace with its most illustrious diadems. Well may we be
sure that it has its eye towards sinners, since it is among the chief
of sinners that it finds its greatest glory.

10.
There is one other reflection which also lies very near the surface,
namely, that if the gospel does not look towards sinners, to whom
else could it look? There seems to have been a revival recently of
the old critical spirit, so that proud Pharisees constantly tell us
that the preaching of justification by faith is overdone, and that we
are leading people to think less of morality by preaching so much on
the grace of God. This often refuted objection is coming out again,
because Protestantism is losing its sap and soul. The very force and
backbone of the Reformers’ teaching was that great doctrine of grace,
that salvation is not by works but by the grace of God alone; and
because men are getting away from the Reformation, and drifting into
Romanism, they are casting into the background this grand truth of
justification by faith alone, and pretending to be afraid of it. But
oh, what knaves and fools most men are upon this matter! I ask them
all this one question — To whom, sirs, would the gospel look if not
towards sinners, for what are you except sinners? You who talk about
morality being injured, about holiness being ignored, what have you
to do with either? The people who usually urge these objections, as a
rule, had better be quiet on such topics. In general these fierce
defenders of morality and holiness are exceedingly lax, while
believers in the grace of God are frequently charged with Puritanism
and rigidity. He who stands out most to speak against the doctrines
of grace is frequently the man who needs grace the most, while the
very man who decries good works as a basis for trust is just the
person whose life is carefully directed by the statutes of the
Lord. Know this, oh men, that there does not live on the face of
the earth any man upon whom God can look with pleasure if he
considers that man on the basis of his law. “They are all gone out of
the way, they are altogether become unprofitable; there is no one who
does good, no not one,” — not one heart is sound and right before God
by nature, not one life is pure and clean when the Lord comes to
examine it with his all searching eye. We are locked up in the same
prison as all being guilty: if not equally guilty, yet guilty
according to the proportion of our light and knowledge, and each one
justly condemned, for we have erred in heart and have not loved the
Lord. To whom, then, could the gospel look if it did not cast its
eyes towards the sinner? For whom else could the Saviour have died?
Who is there in the world for whom the benefits of grace could be
intended?

11.II. Secondly, THE MORE CLOSELY WE LOOK THE MORE CLEAR THIS FACT
BECOMES.

12.
Notice brethren, the work of salvation was certainly not performed
for anyone of us who are saved on account of any goodness in us. If
there is any goodness in us, it was put there by the grace of God,
and it certainly was not there when first the heart of Jehovah’s love
began to move towards us. If you take the first ensign of salvation
that was actually visible on earth, namely, the coming of Christ, we
are told concerning it that “when we were yet without strength, in
due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous
man will one die: yet perhaps for a good man some would even dare to
die. But God commends his love towards us, in that, while we were yet
sinners, Christ died for us.” So that our redemption, my brother, was
accomplished before we were born. This was the fruit of the Father’s
great love “by which he loved us, even when we were dead in sins.”
There was nothing in us previously which could have merited that
redemption, indeed the very idea of meriting the death of Jesus is
absurd and blasphemous. Yes, and when we were living in sin and
loving it, there were preparations made for our salvation; divine
love was busy on our behalf when we were busy in rebellion. The
gospel was brought near to us, earnest hearts were motivated to
praying for us, the text was written which would convert us; and as I
have already said, the blood was shed which cleanses us, and the
Spirit of God was given, who should renew us. All this was done while
as yet we had no longings of soul after God. Is that not a wonderful
passage in Ezekiel, where the Lord passed by and saw the helpless
infant cast out in the open field while he was still unswaddled and
unwashed, but was foul and polluted in his own blood? He says that it
was a time of love, and yet it was a time of pollution and loathing.
He did not love the chosen babe because he was well-washed and
properly clad, but he loved him when he was foul and naked. Let every
believing heart admire the freeness and compassion of divine love.

He saw me ruin’d in the fall,
Yet loved me, notwithstanding all;
He saved me from my lost estate,
His lovingkindness, oh, how great!

When your heart was hard, when your neck was obstinate, when you
would not repent nor yield to him but rebelled even more and more,
he loved you, even you, with supreme affection. Why such grace? Why
indeed, but because his nature is full of goodness and he delights
in mercy. Is mercy not seen to be evidently extended towards the
sinful and not exerted because of some goodness moving towards it?

13.
Look a little closer still. What did our Lord come into the world
to do? Here is the answer. “He was wounded for our transgressions,
he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was
upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.” He came so that he
might be a sin bearer: and do you think he came to bear only the
little, trifling sins of the best kind of men, if there are such
sins? Do you suppose that he is a little Saviour, who came to save us
from little offences? Beloved, it is Jehovah’s darling Son who comes
to earth and bears the load of sin, a load which, when he bears it,
he finds to be no fictitious burden, for it forces from him the
bloody sweat. So heavy is that load that he bows his head to the
grave, and even to death, beneath it. That stupendous load which lay
on Christ was the heap of our sins; and hence as we look into the
subject we perceive that the gospel must have to do with sinners. No
sin! Then the cross is a mistake. No sin! Then the lama
sabachthani was a just complaint against unnecessary cruelty. No
sin! Then, oh Redeemer, what are those glories which we have so
eagerly ascribed to you? How can you put away sin which does not
exist? The existence of great sin is implied in the coming of Christ,
and that coming was occasioned and rendered necessary by sin, against
which Jesus comes as our Deliverer. He declares that he has opened a
fountain, filled with the blood of his own veins. But what for? A
cleansing fountain implies filth. It must be, sinner, that somewhere
or other there are filthy people, or else there would not have been
such an amazing fountain as this, filled from the heart of Christ. If
you are guilty you are one who needs the fountain, and it is opened
for you. Come with all your sin and foulness about you and wash this
morning, and be clean.

’Twas for sinners that he suffer’d
Agonies unspeakable;
Canst thou doubt thou art a sinner?
If thou canst — then hope farewell.
But, believing what is written —
“All are guilty” — “dead in sin,”
Looking to the Crucified One
Hope shall rise thy soul within.

14.
Brethren, all the gifts which Jesus Christ came to give, or at
least most of them, imply that there is sin. What is his first gift
except pardon? How can he pardon a man who has not transgressed? With
all due reverence I speak, there can be no such thing as pardon where
there is no offence committed. Propitiation for sin and blotting out
of iniquity both require that there must be sin to be blotted out, or
what is there real about them? Christ comes to bring justification,
and this shows that there must be a lack of natural holiness in men,
for if not they would be justified by themselves and by their own
works. And why all this outcry about justification by the
righteousness of the Son of God if men are already justified by a
righteousness of their own? Those two blessings, and others of the
same kind, are clearly applicable only to sinful men. To no other men
can they be of any use.

15.
Our Lord Jesus Christ came also clothed with divine power. He
says, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me.” For what purpose was he
clothed with divine power unless it is because sin had taken all
power and strength from man, and man was in a condition out of which
he could not be lifted except by the energy of the eternal Spirit?
And what does this imply except that Christ’s errand bears upon those
who through sin are without strength and without merit before God?
The Holy Spirit is given because man’s spirit has failed: because
sin has taken the life out of man, and made him dead in trespasses
and sins, therefore the Holy Spirit comes to quicken him into newness
of life, and that Spirit comes by Jesus Christ. Therefore the
errand of Jesus Christ is obviously for the guilty.

16.
I will not omit to say that the great deeds of our Lord, if you
look at them carefully, all bear upon sinners. Jesus lives; it is so
that he may seek and save those who are lost. Jesus dies; it is so
that he may make a propitiation for the sins of guilty men. Jesus
rises; he rises again for our justification, and as I have shown, we
would not need justification unless we had been naturally guilty.
Jesus ascends on high, and he receives gifts for men; but notice that
special word, “Yes, for the rebellious also, that the Lord God may
dwell among them.” Jesus lives in heaven, but he lives there to
intercede. “Therefore he is able also to save to the uttermost those
who come to God by him, seeing he lives for ever to make intercession
for them.” So take whatever part of his glorious achievements you
please you will find that there is a distinct bearing towards those
who are immersed in guilt.

17.
And beloved, all the gifts and blessings that Jesus Christ has
brought to us derive much of their radiance from their bearing upon
sinners. It is in Christ Jesus that we are elect, and to my mind
the glory of electing love lies in this, that it selected such
undeserving objects. How could there been any election if it had been
according to merit? Then men would have taken rank by right according
to their own deeds, but election’s glories are brilliant with grace,
and grace always has for its foil and background the unworthiness of
the objects towards whom it is revealed. The election of God is not
according to our works, but it is a gracious election of sinners.
Adore and wonder.

18.
Turn to effectual calling, and see how delightful it is to view that
calling as a calling from among the dead, as a calling of the things
that are not as though they were, as a calling of condemned ones into
forgiveness and favour. Turn next to adoption. What is the glory of
adoption, except that God has adopted those who were strangers and
rebels to make them his children? What is the particular beauty of
regeneration, except that he has been able from these stones to raise
up children to Abraham? What is the beauty of sanctification, except
that he has taken such unholy creatures as we are to make us kings
and priests to God, and to sanctify us wholly — spirit, soul, and body?
To my mind it is the glory of heaven to think that those white
robed choristers were once foully defiled; those happy worshippers
were once rebels against God. It is a happy sight to see the unfallen
angels who have kept their first estate, perfectly pure and for ever
praising God; but the vision of fallen men divinely restored is more
full of the glory of God. Lift as they may their joyful voices in
perpetual chorales the angels can never reach the special sweetness
of that song — “We have washed our robes and made them white in the
blood of the Lamb.” They cannot from experience enter into that truth
which is the crowning glory of Jehovah’s name — “You were slain and have
redeemed us to God by your blood.”

19.
So I have abundantly shown that the further we look the more clear it
is that the gospel is aimed at sinners and especially intended for
their benefit.

20.III. Now, thirdly, it is evident that IT IS OUR WISDOM TO ACCEPT
THE SITUATION.

21.
I know that to many this is a very unpalatable doctrine. Well,
friend, you had better have your palate altered, for you will never
be able to alter the doctrine. It is the truth of the everlasting
God, and cannot be changed. The very best thing you can do, since the
gospel looks towards sinners, is to get where the gospel looks; and I
can recommend this to you, not merely on the basis of policy, but on
the basis of honesty, because you will only be in your right
place when you get there. I think I hear you raising objections. “I
do not admire this system. Am I to be saved in the same way as the
dying thief?” Precisely so, sir, unless there should happen to be
even more grace shown towards you than to him. “But you do not mean
to assert that in the matter of salvation I am to be put on a level
with the woman who was a sinner? I have been pure and chaste, and am
I to owe my salvation just as much to the absolute mercy of God as
she did?” Yes, sir, I do say that, exactly as it stands. There is
only one principle upon which the Lord saves men, and it is that of
pure grace. I want you to understand this. Even if it grinds like
grit between your teeth, and makes you angry; I shall not regret it
as long as you know what I mean; for the truth may still find
entrance into your soul, and you may still bow before its power.
Oh, you children of godly parents, you young people of excellent
morals and delicate consciences, to you I speak, even to you. Rejoice
in your privileges, but do not boast in them, for you too have
sinned, you have sinned against light and knowledge, you know you
have. If you have not plunged into the grosser sins in act and deed,
yet in desire and in imagination you have gone far enough astray, and
in many things you have offended grievously against God. If, with
these considerations before you, you take your place as a sinner you
will not be disgraced, but be merely standing where you certainly are.

22.
And then remember, if you get the blessing this way, you will have
obtained it in the safest possible way. Suppose there are a
number of guest-rooms, and I have taken my seat in one of the best of
them, I may have no right to be there. I am eating and drinking from
what is provided for superior guests, but my invitation does not
identify me as one of these, and therefore I am ill at ease. Every
mouthful that I eat I think to myself, “I do not know whether I shall
be allowed to remain here, perhaps the Lord of the feast will come in
and say to me, ‘Friend how did you get in here?’ and I must begin
with shame to take the lowest room.” Brethren, when we begin at the
bottom, and sit in the lowest room we feel safe, we are satisfied
that what we do get is meant for us, and will not be taken away from
us. Perhaps, also, when the King comes he may take us up to a higher
room. There is nothing like beginning, in the lowest place. When I
lay hold of the promise as a saint I have my doubts about it, but
when I grasp it as a sinner I can have no question. If the Lord
invites me to feed on his mercy as his child I do it, but the devil
whispers that I am presuming, for I never was really adopted by
grace; but when I come to Jesus as a guilty, undeserving sinner, and
take what the Lord freely presents to me upon believing, the devil
himself cannot tell me that I am not a sinner, or if he does the lie
is too transparent, and causes me no distress. There is nothing like
having a title that cannot be forfeited, and if the description given
to you in the title is that you are a sinner, it is an indisputable
one, for depend upon it you are a sinner. So the sinner’s place is
your true place and your safest place.

23.
Another blessing is, it is a place where you can immediately go,
even at this very moment. If the gospel looks towards men in a
certain state of heart in which there are commendable virtues, then
how long will it take me to raise my heart to that state? If Jesus
Christ comes into the world to save men who have a certain measure of
excellence, then how long will it take me to obtain that excellence?
I may be taken sick and die within half-an-hour, and hear the
sentence of eternal judgment, and it would be a poor gospel to tell
me that I might possibly obtain salvation if I attained a state which
would take me several months to reach. At this hour I, a dying man,
know that I may be gone out of this world and beyond the reach of
mercy within an hour; what a comfort it is that the gospel comes to
me and gives itself to me just now, even as it finds me! I am already
in that position in which grace begins with men, for I am a sinner,
and I have only to admit that I am so. Now then, poor soul, just sit
down before the Lord and say, “Lord, does your Son come to save the
guilty? I am such a one, and I trust him to save me. Did he die for
the ungodly? I am such a one, Lord, I trust in his blood to cleanse
me. Was his death for sinners? Lord, I take up the position. I plead
guilty. I accept the sentence of your law as being just, but save me,
Lord, for Jesus died.” It is done; you are saved. Go in peace, my
son; your sins, which are many, are forgiven you, Go, my daughter, go
your way, and rejoice: the Lord has put away your sin; you shall not
die, for he who believes is justified from all sin. Blessed is the
man to whom the Lord does not impute iniquity, and in whose spirit
there is no guile. Get, then, into your true position, accept the
situation in which grace considers you to be. Do not talk about
justice and merit; but appeal to pity and love. A certain man had
plotted against the first Napoleon several times, and eventually,
being entirely in the emperor’s hands, the sentence of death was
pronounced upon him. His daughter earnestly pleaded for his life, and
at last, having obtained an audience with the emperor, she fell upon
her knees before him. “My girl,” said the emperor, “it is of no use
to plead for your father, for I have the clearest evidence of his
repeated crimes, and it is only justice that he should die.” The girl
replied, “Sir, I do not ask for justice, I beg for mercy. It is upon
the mercifulness of your heart and not upon the justice of the case
that I rely.” She was heard patiently, and her father’s life was
spared at her request. Imitate this appeal, and cry, “Have mercy upon
me, oh God, according to your lovingkindness.” Justice owes you
nothing but death, mercy alone can spare you. Abandon every idea of
presenting a good case: admit it to be a bad one and plead guilty.
Cast yourself upon the mercy of the court and ask for mercy, free
mercy, undeserved mercy, gratuitous favour: this is what you must ask
for, and as in law they have a form of suing called in forma
pauperis, that is, in the form of a pauper, adopt the method, and
as a man full of needs beg for favour at the hands of God, in forma
pauperis, and it shall be bestowed upon you.

24.IV. Now I close this discourse with the next point, which is,
THIS DOCTRINE HAS A GREAT SANCTIFYING INFLUENCE.

25.
“There,” one says, “I do not believe that. Surely you have been
holding out a premium for sin by saying that Christ came to save no
one except sinners, and does not call anyone to repentance except the
sinful.” My dear sirs, I have heard all that kind of talk so many
times that I know it by heart; the same objections were raised
against this doctrine in Luther’s day by the Papists, and since then
by those of all classes who dream of being justified by their works.
There is nothing substantial in their notion that free grace is
opposed to morality: it is only their imagination. They dream that
the doctrine of justification by faith will lead to sin, but it can
be proved by history that whenever this doctrine has been best
preached men have become most holy, and whenever this truth has been
darkened, all manner of corruption has abounded. Gracious doctrine
and gracious living properly go together, and legal teaching and
unlawful living are generally found associated.

26.
Let us show you the sanctifying power of this gospel. Its first
operation in that direction is this: when the Holy Spirit brings the
truth of free pardon home to a man it completely changes his
thoughts concerning God. “What,” he says, “has God freely forgiven
me all my offences for Christ’s sake? And does he love me
notwithstanding all my sin? I did not know he was such a one as this,
so gracious and kind! I thought he was hard; I called him a tyrant,
gathering where he had not sown; but does he feel towards me like
this?” “Then,” says the soul, “I love him in return.” There is a
complete change of feeling; the man is turned right around as soon as
he ever understands redeeming grace and dying love. Conversion
follows on a sight of grace.

27.
Moreover, this grand truth does more than turn a man, it inspires,
melts, enlivens, and inflames him. This is a truth which stirs the
depths of the heart, and fills the man with lively emotions. You
talked to him about doing good, and about right, and justice, and
reward, and punishment, and he heard it all, and it may have had a
measure of influence over him, but he did not deeply feel it. Such
teaching is too cold to warm the heart. The truth which comes home to
the man appears to him to be new and exciting. It runs like this, — God
out of his free mercy forgives the guilty, and he has forgiven you.
Why, this awakens him, stirs him up, touches the fountain of his
tears, and moves his whole being. Perhaps at the first hearing of the
gospel he does not care for it, and even hates it, but when it comes
with power it obtains a wonderful mastery over him. When he really
receives its message as his own, then his cold heart of stone is
turned to flesh; warm emotion, tender love, humble desire, and a
sacred longing after the Lord are all aroused in his heart. The
quickening power of this divine truth, as well as its converting
power, can never be admired too much.

28.
Besides, this truth when it enters the heart deals a deadly blow at
the man’s self-conceit. Many a man would have become wise only he
already thought he was so; and many a man would have been virtuous
only he already concluded that he had attained to it. Behold, this
doctrine strikes at the heart of all confidence in your own goodness,
and makes you feel your guilt; and in so doing it removes the great
evil of pride. A sense of sin is the very threshold of mercy. A
consciousness of shortcoming, a grief because of past offences, is a
necessary preparation for a higher and a nobler life. The gospel digs
out the foundation, creates a great vacuum, and so makes room to lay
in their places the glorious stones of a noble spiritual character.

29.
Moreover, where this truth is received there is sure to spring up in
the soul a sense of gratitude. The man who has had much forgiven
will be sure to love much in return. Gratitude towards God is a
grand mainspring for holy action. Those who do right in order to be
rewarded for it are acting selfishly. Selfishness is at the heart of
their character, they abstain from sin only lest self should suffer,
and they obey only that self may be safe and happy. The man who does
right, not because of heaven or hell, but because God has saved him,
and he loves the God who saved him, is the truly right loving man.
He who loves right because God loves it has risen out of the bog of
selfishness and is capable of the loftiest virtue, yes, he has in him
a living spring, which will well up and flow out in holy living as
long as he lives.

30.
And, dear brethren, I think you will all see that free forgiveness
for sinners is very conducive towards one part of a true character,
namely, readiness to forgive others, for he who has been forgiven
much himself is the very man who finds it easy to overlook the
transgressions of others. If he does not do so he may well doubt
whether he himself has been forgiven; but if the Lord has blotted out
his debt of a thousand talents he will readily enough forgive the
hundred pence which his brother owes him.

31.
Last of all, some of us know, and we wish that all knew by personal
experience, that a sense of undeserved favour and free forgiveness is
the very soul of enthusiasm, and enthusiasm is to Christianity
what the life-blood is to the body. Were you ever made enthusiastic by
a cold discourse upon the excellence of morality? Did you ever feel
your soul stirred within you by listening to a sermon upon the
rewards of virtue? Were you ever made enthusiastic by being told
about the punishments of the law? No, sirs; but preach the doctrines
of grace, let the free favour of God be extolled, and notice the
consequences. There are people who will walk for many miles and stand
without weariness for hours on end to hear this. I have known them to
walk many a weary mile to listen to this doctrine. What for? Because
the man was eloquent, or because he expressed it well? Not so: it has
sometimes been badly spoken, and in uncouth language, and yet this
doctrine has always stirred the people. There is something in the
soul of man that is looking out for the gospel of grace, and when it
comes there is a hungering to hear about it. Look at the Reforming
times, when death was the penalty for listening to a sermon: how the
people crowded at midnight; how they journeyed into the deserts and
the caves to listen to the teaching of these grand old truths.
There is sweetness about mercy, divine mercy, freely given, which
holds the ear of man and stirs his heart. When this truth enters the
soul it breeds zealots, martyrs, confessors, missionaries, saints. If
any Christians are in earnest, and full of love for God and man, they
are those who know what grace has done for them. If any remain
under faithful reproaches, under joyful losses and crosses, they are
those who are conscious of their indebtedness to divine love. If any
delight in God while they live, and rest in him as they die, they are
the men who know that they are justified by faith in Jesus Christ who
justifies the ungodly. All glory be to the Lord, who lifts the beggar
from the dunghill and sets him among princes, even the princes of his
people. He takes the very cast-offs of the world and adopts them into
his family, and makes them heirs of God by Jesus Christ. May the Lord
give us all to know the power of the gospel upon our sinful selves.
May the Lord endear to us the name, work, and person of the Sinner’s
Friend. May we never forget the hole of the pit from where we were
drawn, nor the hand which rescued us, nor the undeserved kindness
which moved that hand. Henceforth let us have more and more to say
concerning infinite grace. “Free grace and dying love.” Well does the
negro song say, “Ring those charming bells.” Free grace and dying
love — the sinner’s windows of hope! Our hearts exalt in the very
words. Glory be to you, oh Lord Jesus, always full of compassion.
Amen.

The Adorable Trinity in Unity, Doxologies to the Trinity1521 Bless’d be the Father, and his love,
To whose celestial source we owe
Rivers of endless joy above,
And rills of comfort here below.
2 Glory to thee, great Son of God!
From whose dear wounded body rolls
A precious stream of vital blood,
Pardon and life for dying souls.
3 We give thee, sacred Spirit, praise,
Who in our hearts of sin and woe
Makes living springs of grace arise,
And into boundless glory flow.
4 Thus God the Father, God the Son,
And God the Spirit, we adore;
That sea of life and love unknown,
Without a bottom or a shore.
Isaac Watts, 1709.

The Work of Grace as a Whole239 — Salvation1 Salvation! oh, the joyful sound!
‘Tis pleasure to our ears;
A sovereign balm for every wound,
A cordial for our fears.
2 Buried in sorrow and in sin,
At hell’s dark door we lay;
But we arise by grace divine,
To see a heavenly day.
3 Salvation! let the echo fly
The spacious earth around,
While all the armies of the sky
Conspire to raise the sound.
Isaac Watts, 1709.

Spurgeon Sermons

These sermons from Charles Spurgeon are a series that is for reference and not necessarily a position of Answers in Genesis. Spurgeon did not entirely agree with six days of creation and dives into subjects that are beyond the AiG focus (e.g., Calvinism vs. Arminianism, modes of baptism, and so on).